Family reunions have always been a big part of life in the Appalachian Mountains. Relatives close and distant gather for a day of sharing a meal and memories, celebrating new members of the group, telling stories about ones no longer here.
More than 100 people representing 16 parishes gathered at St. Anne, Bristol, Oct. 19 to celebrate their Catholic kinship and 50 years of reunion with the Diocese of Richmond.
“Primarily, we wanted to have a gathering of the parishes in the deanery,” said Father Tom Lawrence, pastor of St. Anne, Bristol; St. Bernard, Gate City; and St. Patrick, Dungannon, and the dean of Deanery 14, which includes parishes in the far west of the diocese. “I’m so glad we got to share so much history, and that we enjoyed the meal together and fellowship and service and then the Eucharist in an extended way.”
The idea grew out of conversations between Father Timothy Drake, retired priest who served as pastor of many southwestern parishes from 2001 to 2015, and Sarah French, director of faith formation at St. Anne. About 18 months ago, they started talking about this reunion, timed to the anniversary of the realignment that moved Virginia Catholics surrounded by Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia from the Diocese of Wheeling to the Richmond diocese.
“A lot of people just know the small number of people in their own church,” said Father Drake. “They really don’t know even other people in their own [parish] cluster. So, getting together really makes a big difference, and you can build some ties that we haven’t had before.”
During the months of online meetings and changes in priest assignments, French said it was a challenging event to organize.
“It’s amazing to me that it’s happening, that we as a group, as a people, can kind of come together and just be Catholic together in southwest Virginia,” she said.
The heart of the faith
On a sunny day, with hollows starting to show the rusty oranges and yellows of autumn, being Catholic together started with a talk from Father Chris Masla, pastor of Christ the King, Abingdon and St. John the Evangelist, Marion. He noted that this meeting came just three months after the tenth National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, which he attended.
“It is good that we are here,” he said. “I couldn’t help but think when I was there [at the Congress] of what the Lord thought about being there, just as we’re here today. I was convinced that the fact that we gathered in Indianapolis, the fact that we’re gathering here today, just provides the Lord so much joy.”
In his opening talk, Father Masla reviewed Catholic theology, saying that God offered us a loving relationship, but we rebelled. Christ’s suffering and death provided reconciliation, and his resurrection calls us to respond to the offer of eternal life. As more people in our culture express no interest in organized religion, he said, Catholics are, in a sense, living in apostolic times again.
“One important lesson that I believe we can learn from the early Church is that we can never underestimate the power of the basic core Gospel message,” he said. “That’s what the apostles preach. That’s what changed the world.”
Faith in the mountains
An afternoon of stories about spreading that message in this region and personal testimony about coming to the faith filled most of the afternoon – missionary priests on horseback tending to the first Catholic coal miners and railroad workers, Masses said in someone’s home until enough families could convince the diocese they could support a church, and clusters of parishes served by one pastor.
“Most people who grew up here and became Catholics were maybe the only Catholic in their family,” Father Drake said in a phone conversation a few days before the reunion. “So it was a courageous thing for them to join the Catholic Church.”
Terry Meade of St. Therese, St. Paul, was a Pentecostal pastor before finding “the ground and pillar of the truth” in the Catholic faith. He devoted his last sermon to the virginity of the Blessed Mother. “It didn’t go over too well,” he noted. He came into the Catholic Church in 2002. “And 22 years later, I can still say it’s good to be home,” he said.
John White, of Christ the King, came into the faith after starting a career and a family. He said he’ll never forget the spirit and reverence he felt in his first visits to a Catholic church.
“I went to church one Sunday and heard the Prodigal Son [story], which seemed appropriate,” he said.
During his research on parish history, he came across a $10,000 check that helped get the church started.
“Christ the King has been a wonderful inspiration for me and my family,” he said. “I love it, and I hope I never depart from it, ever.”
Sticking to a schedule can be dicey in these parts. Norma Robinson from Church of St. Theresa of Holy Family, Tazewell, assured everyone that her presentation would be concise. “I timed myself,” she said. “It’s five minutes and 10 seconds.”
She recalled that she worshipped in big churches in the Philippines and other countries before moving here. “I felt at home,” she said. “I belonged. And when I wasn’t there, I was missed.”
In small churches, “there is no you or I,” she said. “It is always we; everyone pitches in.”
Jim Tilley recounted the story of St. Anne from its beginnings in 1868, including its many pastors over the years.
“Each priest has had unique abilities,” he said. The Wheeling diocese brought nuns to Bristol to staff a school in 1949. The shift to the Richmond diocese 25 years later was a stressful time with new ideas about how a school should be run, he said. But he said they worked through those issues, as many families do.
A cradle Catholic, Karen Larson of St. Bernard, Gate City, said she has never wavered in her faith. “This is the true religion because of the Eucharist,” she said. “No other faith has that.”
As the presentations ended, Father Lawrence said that Saturday Mass had to start promptly at 4 p.m., leaving just a short time to complete the planned service project – assembling gift bags for expectant mothers. After Mass, a procession with the Eucharist through St. Anne’s grounds and Benediction ended the reunion.
Father Drake said the churches in the deanery do have lots of needs and they are grateful for the generosity of the rest of the diocese. “But we have a special contribution to make out here to the whole Church,” he said. “We have our own riches to share.”
